Bikes

I really like to ride bikes and I love that the kids are getting to an age when we can do it together. Andy can ride without training wheels but he likes them for comfort still (fine by me). Meg likes her tricycle but she's not fast enough to keep up. I have been letting her ride in the bike trailer (see below), but she's too big to want to be towed in what is really a big stroller. And I'm not patient enough to listen to her insist she wants to ride and then have to carry her and her bike half way around the block while begging Andy to slow down.

I'm starting to do some research now on the next step - the trailer bike. These are little half-bikes that attach to the back of the bicycle. The kid gets to pedal and help, a little, but if they do nothing, at least you're towing them vs. towing the kid and the trike.

I was all set to do this until a friend on Facebook recommended I look into a different invention, a bike tow hitch. Basically, you can attach the kids' bike to this trailer hitch and tow him/her like the trailer bike with the advantage of letting them ride on their own until they can't any longer, then hooking them up. I see potential. This could also be useful since sometimes I'd like to meet Andy after school to ride home, but there's no way really to get both our bikes up to the school unless we rode up there together at 7:20 in the morning. And if you know me, you know that just ain't happening.

Anyone have experiences with these, positive, negative, indifferent?

Super Bowl/Winter XLV

Hey, did you hear, the Super Bowl was in Dallas this year? I know, right? Who knew that? It also managed to coincide with the worst winter storm that's hit the area since the local TV station started covering meteorology in 1989. So that was last week, complete with four missed days of school. Cue this week and we had another, albeit more minor, ice storm that led to another missed day of school yesterday. My current work from home situation is handy for days like that in that I'm set up to do work already and can target special Yo Gabba Gabba sessions for times when I have a conference call. What's less than handy is having everyone home and in my space.

We are truly lucky to have a great neighborhood though. Last week and yesterday, we called each other to let the kids take turns playing with each other and our respective houses to give each other a break and keep the kids busy. I knew Southlake had a good community and was really family oriented and in this respect, it's absolutely true. We picked right and it's so far been pretty awesome.

Several dramatic things have been happening in the kids' lives. Andy has had his first break-up with a girl. That's right, he's six, but his school girlfriend gave him a talk last week about how she wanted Bart (Andy's BFF) to be her boyfriend instead. It was rather crushing for the little guy. He's clearly not really emotionally sophisticated to get all of this, but he likes her and doesn't really get it, especially when the break up means she and her new boyfriend can play blocks together and he can't. I'm trying to be cool, but it's hard to see his feelings hurt.

On a positive note, this kid is really putting the pieces to reading together. My children's author crush on Mo Willems continues as we love reading the Elephant and Piggie books. I didn't really get them before, but now that he's reading them to me, they're actually pretty clever and far, far better than most of the other early readers out there. If you have other favorites, bring 'em on. I need variety.

Margaret is also growing leaps and bounds. She's a bootiful princess and prides herself on getting dressed by herself (some days) and wearing a variety of shoes, dresses and hair accessories. It's adorable.

Both kids are getting into bike riding, which is awesome except for the subfreezing temperatures here. Andy has a bike with training wheels and we love riding the figure-eight of our block around and around. He's got the training wheels on still, but I love to watch it. Plus, I get some exercise myself and I tote Meg in the bike trailer and we ride with him. I just love that.